Keith Baker, creator of Eberron and now working on Phoenix:Dawn Command, is posting in this thread.John Terra is johnjt2, a Freelance Game designer who has written for D&D, AD&D 2nd Edition, Top Secret/SI, Dark Sun, Dragonlance, Spelljammer, Forgotten Realms, d20 Star Wars RPG, DC Heroes, Star Wars RPG (d6 from West End Games), TORG, Star Trek: The RPG, Earthdawn, Shatterzone, Indiana Jones RPG, Kingdoms of Kalamar, and some small projects for Flying Buffalo.

Deborah Teramis Christian (Teramis) has written material for Dragonlance, Kara-Tur and Mystara (Gaz 9 The Minrothad Guilds) as well as games for many of the other major RPG publishers. She has been discussing her free Quq-lun novel in this thread.

Mike Brealt, who worked as a full time employee at TSR from 1984-1989 and as a freelancer for TSR for a few years after that, has his own thread here. Of Mystara interest, he worked on the Golden Khan of Ethengar, IM2 Wrath of Olympus and Ship of Horrors.

Allen Varney who worked on Mystara, Spelljammer, Dark Sun, Paranoia and many other things has a thread here.

Wolfgang Baur is a well known game designer having worked on Planescape, Birthright, Al-Qadim, Star*Drive and Dark•Matter settings as well as numerous contributions to Dragon/Dungeon. Today he is perhaps best known as the man behind Kobold Quarterly.

Frank Mentzer (ExTSR), author (formally editor) of the BECMI D&D line and writer of various other D&D products and creator of the Aquaria/Empyria Setting posts in this thread: viewtopic.php?f=44&t=4102

Uri Kurlianchik (Urikson) has written an Eberron adventure, called "Murder in Oakbridge" for Dungeon Magazine, created a mini-campaign setting called Mavet Rav for Dragon Magazine, and worked on Conan, Interface Zero, Pathfinder RPG, Rune Quest II and Traveller products. He is also the co-creator of the DND Kids comic strip.

Stephanie McAlea is a professional cartographer. She has worked with Chaosium, Cubicle7, Mongoose Publishing, Arc dream, and others. She posts her own published setting, Distant Realms in this thread.

Daniel "Arnuya" Cook (Arunya) has been KoDT and Hacklopedia of Beasts for Kenzer.

Keith Baker, creator of Eberron and now working on Phoenix:Dawn Command, is posting in this thread.John Terra is johnjt2, a Freelance Game designer who has written for D&D, AD&D 2nd Edition, Top Secret/SI, Dark Sun, Dragonlance, Spelljammer, Forgotten Realms, d20 Star Wars RPG, DC Heroes, Star Wars RPG (d6 from West End Games), TORG, Star Trek: The RPG, Earthdawn, Shatterzone, Indiana Jones RPG, Kingdoms of Kalamar, and some small projects for Flying Buffalo.

Greg Benage is Greg Benage, co-creator of the Dawnforge Setting. Benage has also written for Dragonstar and other D20 properties as well the contributed to the Blue Planet Players Guide. He is the author of the novel A Circle of Iron (Eldernost: Book 1). He participates in the Dawnforge thread in the Other Worlds Forum.

Mophidius is Chris of Mophidus Games, producers of Achtung! Cthulhu, Mutant Chronicles, Dust RPG and now Infinity RPG's as well as Mindjammer and Mutant Year Zero.

Miles M Kantir (Savage Mojo) has been lead designer for the Suzerain setting since its inception in 1997. His company, Savage Mojo Ltd, has published RPG books, game accessories such as story maps and cards under the Gamescapes brand, and fiction/art prints under the Brainradio brand. Savage Mojo also provides creative services to many companies across the industry.

Robert Bledsaw III (rbledsaw3) is the grandson of Wilderlands creator Robert Bledsaw, and is working on Judges Guild's new Wilderlands products. He posts in the Wilderlands Forum.

Robert Adducci (Raddu) is the founder of the official Dark Sun website: The Burnt World of Athas and the Community Manager for the D&D Adventurers League (the 5th Edition Organised Play program run by Wizards of the Coast).

Michael Tumey is a contributing author for the Paizo Publishing Jade Regent AP, contributor to The Empty Throne module, creator of the Kaidan Setting (PFRPG) and other works. More details here.

Mark Edwards ( Black Jack Rackham ) has written for Adventure a Week, Paradigm Concepts (both for their Witch Hunter Revelations line and a forthcoming Rotted Capes campaign), Melior Via (an unreleased, as yet, adventure world), Margaret Weis Productions (on both their Serenity and Supernatural lines), and Catalyst Game Labs (all from their Shadowrun line).

Deborah Teramis Christian (Teramis) has written material for Dragonlance, Kara-Tur and Mystara (Gaz 9 The Minrothad Guilds) as well as games for many of the other major RPG publishers. She has been discussing her free Quq-lun novel in this thread.

Brett M. Bernstein (brettmb) of Precis Intermedia, publishers of MasterBook, Shatterzone, Bloodshadows, Lord of Olympus and various other games.

Megan Robertson (Megan) co-wrote Way of the Witch, a d20 System sourcebook for Citizen Games.

Wolfgang Baur is a well known game designer having worked on Planescape, Birthright, Al-Qadim, Star*Drive and Dark•Matter settings as well as numerous contributions to Dragon/Dungeon. Today he is perhaps best known as the man behind Kobold Quarterly.

Lawrence Whitaker (Loz) currently working on RuneQuest 6 for Design Mechanism, has worked for Chaosium and Mongoose in the past and written products for Eternal Champion, Glorantha and Traveller. He posts in this thread.

Tim Dugger (Rasyr)Original Author/Designer of HARP; Author of Combat Companion and many issues of HARPer's Bazaar and Express Additions. Primary author of Cyradon. Author of Novus RPG (currently in Open Beta) for Firehawk Games.

Christopher Clark from Inner City Games Designs Adam Black, illustrator of various Talislanta Sourcebeooks posts in the Talislanta Forum

Douglass "writermonk" Bramlett has written material for Talislanta and The Hellas RPG. He posts in this forum.

Frank Mentzer (ExTSR), author (formally editor) of the BECMI D&D line and writer of various other D&D products and creator of the Aquaria/Empyria Setting posts in this thread: viewtopic.php?f=44&t=4102

Mike Brealt, who worked as a full time employee at TSR from 1984-1989 and as a freelancer for TSR for a few years after that, has his own thread here.

BY SETTINGMystara
* Bruce A. Heard (Ambreville), former TSR Product Manager, Mystara Guru etc. is currently posting in this thread.
* Mike Brealt, who worked as a full time employee at TSR from 1984-1989 and as a freelancer for TSR for a few years after that, has his own thread here. Of Mystara interest, he worked on the Golden Khan of Ethengar, IM2 Wrath of Olympus and Ship of Horrors.
* Allen Varney who worked on Mystara, Spelljammer, Dark Sun, Paranoia and many other things has a thread here.
* Colin McComb, creator of Thunder Rift has his own Q&A thread here.
* Tim Beach, who worked as a designer on the Red Steel line and a developer on the Mystara *2e line. He posts on the Savage Coast subforum here.
* Andrew Steven Harris who worked on the Thunder Rifts line (among other things) has his own Q&A thread here.
* James Mishler who published Wilderlands supplements for his own company and also worked on the (abandoned, but not forgotten) Hackmaster Mystara book.
* Geoff Gander, published at DF, inventor of the Outer Beings.
* Shawn Stanley, who runs the Vaults of Pandius, the official Mystara Fansite.
[*]Tim Eagon has written several articles for DDI Dragon/Dungeon, including two articles converting Mystara monsters to 4E. He posts in this thread.

Dragonlance
* Mike Brealt, who worked as a full time employee at TSR from 1984-1989 and as a freelancer for TSR for a few years after that, has his own thread here.
* Cam Banks who posts in the Dragonlance Forum.
* Dragonhelm (Trampas Whiteman) has also worked on various of Dragonlance books with Sovereign Press/Margaret Weis Productions and is the founder of the Whitestone Council, the organization behind the Dragonlance Nexus.
* Colin McComb, , Birthright, Ravenloft, Mystara (Thunder Rift), Dragonlance has his own Q&A thread here.
* Tim Beach

Spelljammer
* Allen Varney who worked on Mystara, Spelljammer, Dark Sun, Paranoia and many other things has a thread here.
* GMWestermeyer, co-author of Hackjammer and with a regular column in KotDT
* Night Druid who worked on the Hackjammer book for Hackmaster, who posts in the Spelljammer forum and elsewhere.
* Silverblade-T-E, has art published in Polyhedron, Dragon and more.
* Jonathan M. Thompson of Battlefield Press (BPIJonathan) can be reached in the [Crystal Spheres] Offical Q&A thread. Jonathan has also aquired the rights to the Terran Trade Authority RPG - something that might appeal to Traveller fans. He posts information about this in the [Traveller] Terran Trade Authoritythread.
* Louis Porter Jr. of LPJ Design is answering questions about his new Spelljammer-like game, Pirates of the Bronze Sky, in the SJ forum.

Ravenloft
* Mike Brealt, who worked as a full time employee at TSR from 1984-1989 and as a freelancer for TSR for a few years after that, has his own thread here.
* Colin McComb, creator of Islands of Terror has his own Q&A thread here.
* Plaag (Shane G) co-wrote Bard's Gate from Necromancer Games and has done work in the first two FoS Ravenloft netbooks.
* Tim Beach, who worked as a designer on the Red Steel line and a developer on the Mystara *2e line. He posts on the Savage Coast subforum here.

Dark Sun
* Allen Varney who worked on Mystara, Spelljammer, Dark Sun, Paranoia and many other things has a thread here.
* Tim Beach

Wilderlands
* Robert S. Conley who worked on the Wilderlands and has written various products for the industry.
* James Mishler who publisheg Wilderlands supplements for his own company and also worked on the (abandoned, but not forgotten) Hackmaster Mystara book.

Talislanta
* Bart Savenije (seafloorian), author of Talislanta sourcebook: The Underground Highway.
* Adam Black, illustrator of various Talislanta Sourcebeooks posts in the Talislanta Forum
* Douglass "writermonk" Bramlett has written material for Talislanta and The Hellas RPG. He posts in this thread:
viewtopic.php?f=61&t=4128
* Stephen Michael Sechi aka SMS, creator of Talislanta and The Arcarnum posts in the Talislanta forum

Aquaria
* Frank Mentzer
* Christopher Clark
* Tim Kask

Freeport
* Tim Emrick (timemrick) , Freeport expert can be found in the Freeport Forum

If I'm not mistaken, Dragonhelm (Trampas Whiteman) has also worked on at least a couple of Dragonlance books with Sovereign Press/Margaret Weis Productions.

I dont' know if this counts, as he's only posted once (on the Al-Qadim forum), but Quickleaf is Aaron Infante-Levy, who wrote Tales of the Caliphate Nights (a cool Arabian setting for the True20 game). Not sure if he plans on being a regular here, though.

I might also add Geoff Gander--inventer of the Outer Beings. It's a bit of a stretch, since he's uncredited, and his only "published material" is on Dragon's Foot, not an actual in-print for-profit game publisher, but still, credit where credit is due.

Gawain_VIII wrote:I might also add Geoff Gander--inventer of the Outer Beings. It's a bit of a stretch, since he's uncredited, and his only "published material" is on Dragon's Foot, not an actual in-print for-profit game publisher, but still, credit where credit is due.

*puts on specs*

Well, my name does appear in the credits for the Blackmoor rulebook, but I didn't actually write anything for it.

Seriously, thank you very much! Now that you've put me on a pillar, I'll really have to perform! Guess I should dust off that submission...

Havard wrote:* Night Druid who worked on the Hackjammer book for Hackmaster, who posts in the Spelljammer forum and elsewhere.

Me? Celebrity? I think that stretches the definition a bit...

Do we have other celebrities on this forum that I forgot about?

If you're including me, you've got to include GMWestermeyer, co-author of Hackjammer. Heck, he's got a regular article in KotDT!

I think all of these should be offered their own Q&A thread should they want it. IMO it would make the most sense to hae these threads located in the forum the individual is most strongly associated with. We could also have a thread in this forum with links to all of the celebritiy Q&A threads.

I dont want to be the one to decide what constitutes a celebrity. Feel free to discuss that further. In any case, all of the people mentioned so far are cool people so being mentioned should be taken as a pat on the shoulder regardless.

Philosopher wrote:I dont' know if this counts, as he's only posted once (on the Al-Qadim forum), but Quickleaf is Aaron Infante-Levy, who wrote Tales of the Caliphate Nights (a cool Arabian setting for the True20 game). Not sure if he plans on being a regular here, though.

Being registered is enough for now IMO.

Seer of Yhog wrote:
*puts on specs*

Well, my name does appear in the credits for the Blackmoor rulebook, but I didn't actually write anything for it.

Me too There are also subtle references to me in the ZGG version of Temple of the Frog

Seriously, thank you very much! Now that you've put me on a pillar, I'll really have to perform! Guess I should dust off that submission...

Havard wrote:I dont want to be the one to decide what constitutes a celebrity. Feel free to discuss that further. In any case, all of the people mentioned so far are cool people so being mentioned should be taken as a pat on the shoulder regardless.

Rather than defining "celebrity", we can just thinking of this in terms of getting people in touch with authors/game designers/contributors (in any capacity) to ask any questions about their work. The idea is a great one; the semantics isn't important.

Well...I was published in Polyhedron 4 times, and Dragon mag nicked some of my Spelljammer art for a painting they had done, lol (they apologized honest mistake in confusing reference with useable art samples)

Philosopher wrote:Rather than defining "celebrity", we can just thinking of this in terms of getting people in touch with authors/game designers/contributors (in any capacity) to ask any questions about their work. The idea is a great one; the semantics isn't important.

Silverblade-T-E wrote:Well...I was published in Polyhedron 4 times, and Dragon mag nicked some of my Spelljammer art for a painting they had done, lol (they apologized honest mistake in confusing reference with useable art samples)

Believe Athas.org is gonna use some of my art, too

Wow, I had no idea. That's awesome. Not surprised though, your art is great! I am still thinking of how to convince you to make an illustration of some of the Mystara Sky ships though...

Philosopher wrote:If I'm not mistaken, Dragonhelm (Trampas Whiteman) has also worked on at least a couple of Dragonlance books with Sovereign Press/Margaret Weis Productions.

I would say more than "a couple". He has a front cover credit on Races of Anslaon, Holy Orders of the Stars and Knightly Orders of Ansalon. He is also credited in War of the Lance, Dragons of Krynn, Bestiary of Krynn: Revised, Legends of the Twins. Plus he gets a "thankyou" in Dragonlance Campaign Setting and Towers of High Sorcery. (I didn't check the other stuff.)

Dragonhelm is one of the members of the Whitestone Council and is "in charge of" Dragonlance Nexus (which now owns the Dragonlance Forums). He is also one of the three regular presenters on the Dragonlance Canticle podcast.

Cam Banks also has his name on lots of the recent Dragonlance books and now works for Margaret Weis Productions. He has also published a Dragonlance novel, so may be the first person on these forums who is both a game designer and an author.

Havard wrote:

Silverblade-T-E wrote:Well...I was published in Polyhedron 4 times, and Dragon mag nicked some of my Spelljammer art for a painting they had done, lol (they apologized honest mistake in confusing reference with useable art samples)

Believe Athas.org is gonna use some of my art, too

Wow, I had no idea. That's awesome. Not surprised though, your art is great! I am still thinking of how to convince you to make an illustration of some of the Mystara Sky ships though...

With or without deck plans? He does both types!

You might need to get in line behind the guy begging him to do a Whaleship.

If anyone wants ot take up ship designing, try "Rhino3D" program used to build real ships: I can import the original deckplans (as scans), use those to build outlines. Then outlines into walls/decks, and then render finished ship out in 3D, or as 2D deckplans
3D MAX can do that too but it's waaaay too expensive/ugly to use, ick!

I kept forgetting to ask Dragon mag for original pic/permission to post that ship they did based on my take of the Tradesman ship, lol. You can see it's the EXACT same, down to textures and flag etc
I've got a scan saved on my other PC's hard drive

Silverblade-T-E wrote:lol, Whaleship is NOT my fave so will be far back in the line

Yea, I know. That was why I mentioned the clunky old ship!

Silverblade-T-E wrote:If anyone wants ot take up ship designing, try "Rhino3D" program used to build real ships: I can import the original deckplans (as scans), use those to build outlines. Then outlines into walls/decks, and then render finished ship out in 3D, or as 2D deckplans
3D MAX can do that too but it's waaaay too expensive/ugly to use, ick!

I definately want to have another go at 3D designing (at some point). But when I first did it, I was just crunching other people's objects together. It looks like it is fairly tough to do. I deconstructed a few 3D models and they had hundreds of polygons inside them.

I've got a ton of other things that I also want to learn* and at the moment I'm not sure how I can fit them all in.

* = I've touched on PDF design and want to be able to do that. I've tinkered with 2D art packages and want to get better at them. I've played with page layout tools and they have shown a lot of potential. I even want to learn how to manipulate things like Microsoft Word and PowerPoint to allow me to create some useful RPG material. (Creating proper structure into a Microsoft Word document will help me export properly tagged PDFs. And creating something like a Spelljammer PowerPoint presentation, could help make something that plays like a movie, but is much smaller than a "proper" movie file.)

Silverblade-T-E wrote:I kept forgetting to ask Dragon mag for original pic/permission to post that ship they did based on my take of the Tradesman ship, lol. You can see it's the EXACT same, down to textures and flag etc
I've got a scan saved on my other PC's hard drive

Big Mac,
Whaleships always make me think of the "Titanic" and "Aliens"...

Well,there's 2 parts to it: understanding the basic concepts, which isn't too hard. Can explain if need.
And finding your own enjoyable app to work with...which takes time/effort. Everyone has their own fave, but you need to find yours: there's no "best" app, no matter what some snobs think.

Rhino, Silo, Moment of Inspiration, Lightwave, Modo, Maya, 3DMAX, Wings3D, are well known apps for modelling
Should be able ot get demos or personal learning editions for each.

2D work many professionals use Photoshop, but i much preffer PaintShopPro. I ahve Photoshop as it can do some other things too. Note that if you buy such stuff legit, like me, it costs a TON for some apps. PaintSHopPro is cheap, Silo and Moment of Inspiration are about £100 iirc, Vue Infinite is £500-ish (but there's lesser editions basi cones about £60?), Ligthwave is about £500, Adobe Photoshop is £500 too, Maya and especially 3Dmax are ridiculously expensive.

Another one is XSI, i actually have XSI foundation 5, full, legit, I never used, if you *really* use that one I can transfer my license to you.
about £500,

Silverblade-T-E wrote:2D work many professionals use Photoshop, but i much preffer PaintShopPro. I ahve Photoshop as it can do some other things too. Note that if you buy such stuff legit, like me, it costs a TON for some apps. PaintSHopPro is cheap, Silo and Moment of Inspiration are about £100 iirc, Vue Infinite is £500-ish (but there's lesser editions basi cones about £60?), Ligthwave is about £500, Adobe Photoshop is £500 too, Maya and especially 3Dmax are ridiculously expensive.

For some reason that I absolutely cannot fathom, Photoshop costs the same price in pounds as it does in dollars. Quite how they can get away with this double standard, I have no idea, but anyone actually thinking of buying something from Adobe should seriously consider getting it through an American friend or relative if at all possible. It'll end up costing almost half the money for the same product.

If I weren't eligible for the academic version here, I would definitely be buying it that way. As it is, I'm pretty sure the academic version here is more expensive than the American academic version, but I have no way of getting that one so it's a moot point.

Thanks for that. I think I have some of the basics down, but I might take you up on that offer.

Silverblade-T-E wrote:And finding your own enjoyable app to work with...which takes time/effort. Everyone has their own fave, but you need to find yours: there's no "best" app, no matter what some snobs think.

I see what you mean. If something is "better", but unusuable I won't be able to get anything done.

Silverblade-T-E wrote:Rhino, Silo, Moment of Inspiration, Lightwave, Modo, Maya, 3DMAX, Wings3D, are well known apps for modelling
Should be able ot get demos or personal learning editions for each.

Is TrueSpace still going?

They might already have some of these programmes installed where I work.

Silverblade-T-E wrote:2D work many professionals use Photoshop, but i much preffer PaintShopPro. I ahve Photoshop as it can do some other things too. Note that if you buy such stuff legit, like me, it costs a TON for some apps. PaintSHopPro is cheap, Silo and Moment of Inspiration are about £100 iirc, Vue Infinite is £500-ish (but there's lesser editions basi cones about £60?), Ligthwave is about £500, Adobe Photoshop is £500 too, Maya and especially 3Dmax are ridiculously expensive.

Another one is XSI, i actually have XSI foundation 5, full, legit, I never used, if you *really* use that one I can transfer my license to you.
about £500,

I learned some of Adobe Acrobat on a machine that had it at my last job, so hopefully can get to use some of these things at my new job.

I've used both PaintShopPro and Photoshop. I found PaintShopPro easier too. I had access to a really old version. So I'm not sure what it is like now.

Thanks for the offer of an XSI licence. I've never heard of it, so that probably suggests that I shouldn't have it.

What are your thoughts on machinima? I wonder if your SJ ship models could ever be fed into some sort of dogfighting game engine to allow for several people to perform as "actors" to fly ships around in real time and help create a longer film than the sort of thing you have done in the past.

To get this thread back on topic (if that is allowed ) we have a Q&A thread for the forthcoming Crystal Spheres product line up and running. It is in the Spelljammer forum (as it is about using Crystal Spheres products with the Spelljammer Campaign Setting) but I suppose it could be moved if people agree that Other Worlds would be a better place.

Big Mac wrote:I'm not sure if the policy of The Piazza is to stick these sorts of threads or if the proposed sticky listing them all, will be enough. But when I find out, I'll do whatever needs doing.

Looks interesting! I stickied a similar thread over in the Thunder Rift subforum so I don't see why not. It all depends on how many stickied threads you want to have in the forum though. Once it gets to more than 2-3 it might make the forum less attractive to read.

Big Mac wrote:I'm not sure if the policy of The Piazza is to stick these sorts of threads or if the proposed sticky listing them all, will be enough. But when I find out, I'll do whatever needs doing.

Looks interesting! I stickied a similar thread over in the Thunder Rift subforum so I don't see why not. It all depends on how many stickied threads you want to have in the forum though. Once it gets to more than 2-3 it might make the forum less attractive to read.

I have heard of forums, where they have switched to having a "master sticky" (that links over too all the threads that the moderators want to draw attention to) and have turned all other stickies into regular threads.

Big Mac wrote:I have heard of forums, where they have switched to having a "master sticky" (that links over too all the threads that the moderators want to draw attention to) and have turned all other stickies into regular threads.